The present invention relates generally to the field of providing and maintaining customized services, and more specifically to the problem of providing and maintaining customized telecommunication services.
The incorporated patent applications each describe a system and method for creating and executing customized telecommunication services tailored to subscribers' needs. The system of the incorporated patent applications includes a service creation environment for creating customized telephone services and a service execution environment for executing the telephone services. The service creation environment includes a graphical user interface which permits an operator to build a displayed graphical representation of a desired service using "nodes," "decision boxes," and "branches." Each node represents a high level instruction for the execution of the service. The displayed graphical representation of the service is translated to a binary representation and stored as a call processing record (CPR). CPRs are transmitted from a creation environment to an execution environment where they are executed during call processing operations to return call processing instructions to inquiring switches.
The system and method for creating and executing customized telephone services described in the incorporated patent applications are described as being implemented in the Advanced Intelligent Telephone Network (AIN).
FIG. 1 illustrates an overview of the AIN. The AIN comprises System Service Points (SSPs) 30, 35, 40, and 45, Signal Transfer Points (STPs) 48 and 50, Service Control Points (SCPs) 10 and 20, and Service Management Systems (SMS) 60. SSPs are central office switching systems which receive telephone calls from telephones 12. Each SSP recognizes a variety of "triggers" within customer telephone call signals and generates queries to SCPs based on the triggers. The SSPs then process customer calls in response to commands received from the SCPs.
The SCPs communicate with the SSPs over a common-channel-signalling (CCS) network 67 that includes STPs 48 and 50. The CCS network 67 employs communications channels separate from channels used to transport customer voice signals and includes a packet-switching system. The CCS network 67 switches data in packets instead of allocating circuits for the duration of a call. The STPs 48 and 50 provide the packet-switching functions.
Each SCP is fault tolerant, because each SCP includes processors connected through dual local-area networks (not shown). If one processor of an SCP fails, another processor of the SCP can ensure that the SCP continues to function. Further, SCPs are configured as a mutually mated pair in different locations. If an SCP, such as SCP 10, is disabled, its mate, SCP 20, can ensure that telephone service continues without interruption.
Associated with each SCP 10, 20 is an SMS 60. An SMS 60 provides a support interface through which customer data and service logic can be added or managed.
The incorporated patent applications also disclose techniques for testing and validating CPRs that have been created at a creation environment. Testing of a CPR provides a visual indication on the displayed graphical representation (graph) of the CPR of the execution path taken through the CPR during a call processing operation. The visual indication is described in one embodiment as a red line trace of the paths connecting he nodes of a displayed graph.
Validating a CPR involves detecting logical infractions in the processing routine of the CPR and identifying these infractions to an operator based on a set of rules and a knowledge base understood by an expert system.
The creation and implementation of new telephone services today are complicated and time-consuming undertakings. Service applications are often highly complex software procedures that must be compiled and installed at the execution environment. Once a service application is installed at the execution environment, an operator has little ability to monitor and manage the service application from a remote creation environment.